Obama's job plan has a slim chance of passing -- and that might be a plus for him

Now that the debt ceiling fight is firmly behind him, President Obama is continuing his promised "pivot" away from budget issues and towards the troubled economy, with promises to confront Congress and push for legislation to create jobs. The White House has promised to unveil new economic plans in September, and administration officials told the Associated Press that his plan would include new construction and spending projects to boost jobs. The proposals will face steep, maybe impossible hurdles in Congress, where opposition to Obama and any new spending remains high. But for the president, having nothing to lose in this fight may be the point.

Obama's style in the past has been to focus on the results of legislation, no matter how ugly the sausage-making process gets. In his push for healthcare reform and the stimulus package, he accepted painful compromises with Republicans and conservative Democrats to get the laws through. In standoffs with Republicans over tax cuts, the budget, and the debt ceiling, the president agreed to Republican demands which left his own party howling. Even when he came up short -- for instance, with the defunct cap and trade bill -- Obama focused on a pragmatic approach which accepted political realities.

But now the political reality, at least as many in Washington, D.C. see it, is that Republicans are unlikely to accept any new jobs legislation from the president. Opposition to the stimulus spending was one of the core principles of the Tea Party movement which swept the Republicans back into power in 2010, and no amount of deal-making will change freshmen Republicans' minds. And many believe that Obama's name is so toxic among Republicans that any plan he pushes, even if it seems favorable to conservatives, will likely be met with stiff resistance.

The situation has left many liberal observers hoping that Obama will use this as a chance to draw a firm contrast with Republicans, and paint them as opponents to economic recovery. "I think the point of it is to demonstrate to both the American people and to the markets that there's someone trying to get us out of the economic hole that we're in," says Michael Ettlinger, an economic analyst with the left-leaning Center for American Progress. "Not from a political, 'who's going to win, who's going to lose' standpoint, but from the standpoint of letting the voters have a say in whether we're going to take the measures we need to get job creation or not."

Obama's jobs plan will likely be a mix and match of long-time proposals and fresh ideas. The Obama administration has already promoted patent reform and several free trade agreements as potential job creating bills, but those are mostly bipartisan measures which have gotten hamstrung by the Congressional process. He'll also likely continue his push to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits through 2012. In the past, he's pushed for the creation of an "infrastructure bank" to fund construction projects with help from private dollars, and his new proposal may include that as part of a larger plan to beef up construction projects across the country.

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that while infrastructure spending won't sell with Republicans, some type of payroll tax cut expansion or extension might -- but even that will be an uphill climb. The Obama administration will have to weigh economic concerns against public sentiment and what Republicans may be willing to yield on. But win or lose, this could be a chance for Obama to finally let everyone know where he stands.